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    <title>ShellCheck: SC2141 – Did you mean `IFS=$'\t'` ?</title>
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    <h1>SC2141 – ShellCheck Wiki</h1>
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    <h2 id="did-you-mean-ifst-">Did you mean <code>IFS=$'\t'</code> ?</h2>
<h3 id="problematic-code">Problematic code:</h3>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb1"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="SC2141.html#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="va">IFS</span><span class="op">=</span><span class="st">&quot;\t&quot;</span></span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="correct-code">Correct code:</h3>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb2"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb2-1"><a href="SC2141.html#cb2-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="va">IFS</span><span class="op">=</span><span class="st">$&#39;</span><span class="dt">\t</span><span class="st">&#39;</span></span></code></pre></div>
<p>or POSIX:</p>
<div class="sourceCode" id="cb3"><pre class="sourceCode sh"><code class="sourceCode bash"><span id="cb3-1"><a href="SC2141.html#cb3-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="va">IFS</span><span class="op">=</span><span class="st">&quot;</span><span class="va">$(</span><span class="bu">printf</span> <span class="st">&#39;\t&#39;</span><span class="va">)</span><span class="st">&quot;</span></span></code></pre></div>
<h3 id="rationale">Rationale:</h3>
<p><code>IFS="\t"</code> splits on backslash and the letter "t".
<code>IFS=$'\t'</code> splits on tab.</p>
<h3 id="exceptions">Exceptions</h3>
<p>It's extremely rare to want to split on the letter "n" or "t", rather
than linefeed or tab.</p>
<h3 id="related-resources">Related resources</h3>
<p>See <a href="https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/wiki/SC1012"
class="uri">https://github.com/koalaman/shellcheck/wiki/SC1012</a></p>
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